Thursday, August 26, 2010

I caught the commercial to the new Katharine Heigl movie Life as We Know It (2010) recently in which Hendricks dies and Heigl, her best friend, turns out to be the "raise my child" choice in the will. The whole time I was watching the short film (I'd say "trailer" but it contains the whole movie. No need to buy a ticket) I kept thinking 'Wait. You're going to tease me with Christina and then make me watch Katharine instead for 2 hours?' And bear in mind, I like the oft-hated Katharine Heigl. Honestly, sometimes Hollywood is really slow on the draw with what the public responds to. People are nuts for Christina Hendricks. Look around the web. Where's her big movie role? It's not like Mad Men doesn't have long hiatuses.

Film Brain Jean Luc Godard's no show letter for a career honor in 1995. Think he'll show up for the Governor's Ball in LA? I don't.Film Business AsiaMonga will represent Taiwan for this year's foreign film Oscar race. Yeah yeah, I know I need to update the pages.Village Voice fun interview with Edward Albee who has a new play Off Broadway. You have to admire his self regard...

The world would be a better place if theaters were filled with my plays all the time.

MNPP who wore it best? confident men in pink bathrobes. Hmmm, I wanted more options. Didn't Grant or Hudson don one, too?The Wrap Anthony Mackie for MI:4? We keep rooting for him. A big budget action flick probably couldn't hurt./FilmAll Good Things starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling will get a tiny limited December release. All the better to compete directly with Ryan Gosling's other tiny limited December release Blue Valentine. I seriously don't understand movie distributors.MCI Scott Pilgrim vs. The MatrixBoing Boing not cinema but this "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon about evil fetuses is hilarious especially if, like me, you need to laugh to stop from crying about what's happening in America right now.

Bernadette+Sondheim cannot be compared to anything else in the world. Nothing can top it. Everyone should be dropping whatever they're doing and immediately buy tickets to A Little Night Music while she's still there. Consider me sold on Follies.

But if you do want to get in comparisons Juliette>Gerard any day, and he's just making that choice easier.

Rose Byrne is out. And Panjabi and Baranski too since they 1) will probably split votes, 2) they are not strong enough competitors to win and 3) the series is all about Margulies.

Moss and Gless are the only real opponents to Hendricks. Gless is a veteran and her nomination came out of nowhere - and this category loves to bring up surprises. I hope that doesn't happen. Of course Moss would be the most likely winner since she was graceful enough to drop to supporting and her episode choice is very good but Hendricks has a lot of good will and industry adulation going for her at the moment. And that sometimes helps winning.

I hope Mackie gets to join Renner in MI4. As far as Heigl is concerned, I'm mostly indifferent to her, she certainly needs to start doing something other than those all those rom-coms and Life As We Know It is just another very close variation of what she has been playing since Knocked Up.

I don't know what else can I say to defend Katherine Heigl's career choices...

After an Emmy win what do you do? Hit breakout movie role. Good choice. But then what? Awful comedies and poor movie roles, thrashing colleagues and screenwriters and bosses in national television, leaving Grey's Anatomy profiting from its decline (but creating a huge mess in the process)...

She is not just, as the Guardian article points out, 'one of the foremost French actors of her generation'. She is one of the foremost actors of the world, of any generation, and one of the foremost French actors of all time.

Depardieu should be rather proud to be from the same country as this breathtakingly talented, amazingly beautiful actress.

Now now, I dont agree with the words he used (and who knows how he said these things) but Gerard has the right to express his opinions - she's clearly not 'nothing' but I can understand one's frustration when some artists dont get the credit they deserve.

Yeah, of course he can express his opinion, but not with the 'words he used', as you said. That's the whole point. And only because he is frustrated he is not entitled to insult one of the most acclaimed actresses of the world. BTW he is an Oscar nominee himself. Maybe he should just start making better movies again to win back the "credit he deserves".

Len Cariou on the original Night Music soundtrack is GORGEOUS, but I don't know if I buy him in the other work he's done with Sondheim. George Hearn, maybe Mandy Patinkin, and definitely Angela are up there with Bernadette.

But Bernadette will always have my heart. When the tears started rolling down her face during Send in the Clowns, I had to will my heart not to stop beating. I'm with Nathaniel in the land of the undead over here.

- Need Follies. Need Peters in Follies. Need Jamie Lee Curtis, Carrie Fisher or Bebe Neuwirth as Carlotta ("I'm Still Here"). Interesting tidbit: The original Sally, Dorothy Collins, and the original Carlotta, Yvonne DeCarlo, were both over ten years younger than Peters when they created the roles in the 1971 production.

- I loved Heigl on Roswell and I would have liked her more on Grey's if Shonda's writing style didn't make almost every character (especially Izzy) insufferable. Have never seen a single one of her movies.

Taylor, the tricky thing about Carlotta is that the lyrics to "I'm Still Here" were tailor-made to the career of Yvonne DeCarlo (or Alexis Smith, for that matter). Now that the show has become a period-piece-within-a-period-piece, there's no actress who can sing "In the Depression, was I depressed?/Nowhere near/I met a financier and I'm here" with the same meta resonance, but you definitely need someone with Hollywood/Broadway pedigree and longevity. I think Carrie Fisher would be a hoot.

DeCarlo was only 48 when Follies opened, but she had lived quite a life. Of course, age 48 in 1971 was the equivalent of age 65 in 2010 (whether you bathe in the blood of virgins or not).

(Oh, and I just have a weakness for Len Cariou--in any role. All the way back to Applause.)

Oh you'll never hear me argue Yvonne DeCarlo as Carlotta. There's actually a wonderful youtube video of her talking about the role and then singing the song and she's marvelous (even while forgetting the lyrics).

I agree that the role needs someone with gravitas, but does Carrie sing? Bebe would be able to nail the song,and she has been around for quite a while. In recent productions, Carlotta has been an old old-timer but I think it works better with someone a bit younger, though still distinguished. Gives her a bit of kick I think.

taylor & paul -- yay actual conversation. I'm not so much joining in as enjoying. but i hope to see you all in DC for the Follies.

City Center did it a few years ago with Donna Murphy & whatshername and I really loved it and have been dying to see it again. They should basically just have revivals of every Sondheim show every year so that I can see all of them again and again (except for maybe ANYONE CAN WHISTLE since once was pretty much enough)